The Crazy Details About How Apple Is Going To Construct Its $5 Billion Spaceship HQ (AAPL)

Jay Yarow, provided by

Updated 1:55 pm, Thursday, April 4, 2013

Photo: Via Bloomberg

Image 1of/6

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 6

An artist’s rendering provided to the media in 2012 shows the planned Apple campus, which would sit on 175 landscaped acres in Cupertino.

An artist’s rendering provided to the media in 2012 shows the planned Apple campus, which would sit on 175 landscaped acres in Cupertino.

Photo: Via Bloomberg

Image 2 of 6

Instead of a traditional corporate campus, Apple hopes to expand in Cupertino with a single building for 12,000 workers -- a round structure with a futuristic design that Steve Jobs likened to a spaceship.

Instead of a traditional corporate campus, Apple hopes to expand in Cupertino with a single building for 12,000 workers -- a round structure with a futuristic design that Steve Jobs likened to a spaceship.

Photo: Foster + Partners

Image 3 of 6

Instead of a traditional corporate campus, Apple hopes to expand in Cupertino with a single building for 12,000 workers -- a round structure with a futuristic design that Steve Jobs likened to a spaceship.

Instead of a traditional corporate campus, Apple hopes to expand in Cupertino with a single building for 12,000 workers -- a round structure with a futuristic design that Steve Jobs likened to a spaceship.

Photo: Foster + Partners

Image 4 of 6

Instead of a traditional corporate campus, Apple hopes to expand in Cupertino with a single building for 12,000 workers -- a round structure with a futuristic design that Steve Jobs likened to a spaceship.

Instead of a traditional corporate campus, Apple hopes to expand in Cupertino with a single building for 12,000 workers -- a round structure with a futuristic design that Steve Jobs likened to a spaceship.

Photo: Foster + Partners

Image 5 of 6

Instead of a traditional corporate campus, Apple hopes to expand in Cupertino with a single building for 12,000 workers -- a round structure with a futuristic design that Steve Jobs likened to a spaceship.

Instead of a traditional corporate campus, Apple hopes to expand in Cupertino with a single building for 12,000 workers -- a round structure with a futuristic design that Steve Jobs likened to a spaceship.

Photo: Foster + Partners

Image 6 of 6

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, presented the Cupertino City Council with plans for their new headquarters. The building is circular in design and would accommodate 12,000 employees.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, presented the Cupertino City Council with plans for their new headquarters. The building is circular in design and would accommodate 12,000 employees.

Photo: Courtesy Apple

The Crazy Details About How Apple Is Going To Construct Its $5 Billion Spaceship HQ (AAPL)

1 / 6

Back to Gallery

Steve Jobs' last public appearance wasn't to announce a new iPhone, or a new iPad. It wasn't in front of a huge throng of media, either.

Jobs' last pitch was to Cupertino, California's city council. He was selling it on his plan to build a new headquarters that he said looks like a "spaceship."

It's a huge glass donut sitting in the middle of a forest of 309 different types of trees, according to illustrations submitted to the city.

Burrows says the building costs have expanded to ~$5 billion from an initial estimate of ~$3 billion, due largely to "fit and finish" issues with the construction. Burrows singles out a lot of Jobs' highly specific requests for the building.

Wood used inside the building is to come from a specific type of maple tree, and it can only be "heartwood," which is the wood from the center of the tree.

The building will have six-square kilometers of bent glass, which will be bent at a factory in Germany, then shipped to California. The company doing the glass had to develop new machines for making it.

Apple will pre-build bathrooms and cubicle banks then have them driven to the office and installed. This saves time and allows the construction to be more exact.

Jobs also wanted the seams where walls met to be 1/32 of an inch across, whereas the standard for construction is 1/8 of inch.

He wanted the ceiling to be polished concrete instead of sound absorbing material. Apple also has a very specific plan for the concrete ceiling. It wants to pour ceiling molds on the ground, then lift it to the ceiling, an approach that is far more expensive.